A man has been charged after a stabbing on an East London bus left a 34-year-old man in a critical condition and resulted in two others being taken to hospital with non-life-threatening slash wounds.
Samuel Modeste has been charged on three counts of grievous bodily harm and one count of possessing a bladed article in a public place.
Police were alerted around 00:48 BST on Wednesday morning after the driver of the N25 bus activated the panic button.
When emergency services arrived at the scene shortly after 1:00 am, they found the three victims who were later taken to hospital. The attacker was arrested at the scene and taken to an East London police station.
With the safety of passengers in question, Rising East asked a Transport For London (TFL) bus driver what measures TFL have in place to protect the public during an attack such as this.
London bus driver Ms. Clarke said, “All buses are equipped with a code red button and panic button which should be pressed in case of an emergency. This alerts the police to come to their assistance. Drivers can raise this alarm without the offenders noticing as this can often trigger them.”
We also asked people who live and work in the area for their reactions.
Charlie, a young man who works nearby, said, “This in my eyes is even more evidence of why the night tube should be seven days a week. The safety of the security cameras and the added numbers of staff take a lot of pressure off the solitary bus driver”.
When asked how this incident and other similar ones in the area have made him feel he said, “Angry. I will be extremely guarded for the foreseeable future. I will also be ensuring that both myself and my colleagues walk in groups as often as possible.”
Vee, another local, said, ‘This is the current standard of London living. We have become a little bit desensitised to all of this and it’s not something we have had control over.”
This story hit close to home for Vee as his cousin was fatally stabbed during an attack in East London. “We need a change,” he said, “… from someone who is actually going to bring it.”
Ironically the incident took place on a bus featuring artwork commissioned to commemorate the 7/7 terror attacks in 2005 in which a bomb killed thirteen people on a bus in Bloomsbury.
Photo available via MyLondon
